Rate My Professor Fiona Harrison

Harrison's research in Space Science centers on observational and experimental high-energy astrophysics. Her group investigates black holes across mass scales, neutron stars, gamma-ray bursts, supernovae, and ultraluminous X-ray sources using facilities like Chandra, XMM-Newton, NuSTAR, and ground-based telescopes. As Principal Investigator of NASA's NuSTAR mission, she has advanced studies of supermassive black hole growth and supernova nucleosynthesis. Key contributions include developing novel X-ray optics and detectors for future missions such as UVEX. Notable publications encompass the NuSTAR instrument paper (Harrison et al., ApJ 2013), kilonova observations from GW170817 (Evans et al., Science 2017), asymmetric explosion evidence in SN1987A (Boggs et al., Nature 2015), and titanium-44 mapping in Cassiopeia A (Grefenstette et al., Nature 2014). Harrison's leadership extends to co-chairing the National Academies' Decadal Survey in Astronomy and Astrophysics and testifying before Congress. Her impact is recognized through awards including the 2020 Hans A. Bethe Prize (APS), 2015 Bruno Rossi Prize (AAS), 2016 Harrie Massey Medal (COSPAR), 2022 Mohler Prize (University of Michigan), election to the National Academy of Sciences (2014), American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2014), and fellowships in APS (2012), AAS (2020), and Royal Astronomical Society (2015).